I love to cook. And I love to find epicurean treasures at the local Farmers’ Market. I served the following delicious recipes at last weekend’s Prenatal Yoga Teacher Training at DIG Yoga to rave reviews. As a part of her philosophy of living yoga Sue Elkind always includes a component on Ayurveda and nutrition to her Yoga Teacher Trainings, and encourages students to research the value of food they eat. Both these salads are packed with nutrients and were big hits both with the pregnant moms and my fellow yoga students.

Trim the bottom few inches off the kale stems and discard. Slice the kale into 3/4-inch ribbons. Place the kale in a large bowl. Add cheese, pine nuts, cranberries, and vinaigrette; toss to coat. Marinate at room temperature for 20 minutes, tossing occasionally. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Enjoy!

Pomegranate Vinaigrette

1/2 cup fresh or bottled pomegranate juice

1/4 cup red-wine vinegar

2 tablespoons raw local honey

1/2 cup olive oil (not extra-virgin) or sunflower oil

In a medium bowl, mix the pomegranate juice, vinegar and honey, and let sit for 10 minutes. Whisk in the rest. Refrigerate until ready to serve. Stir thoroughly before using.

Quinoa Salad with Smoked Salmon and Capers

from Stephan Pyles’ Southwestern Vegetarian

1 tablespoon of olive oil

1 tablespoon of unsalted butter

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 cup of quinoa

2 teaspoons of salt 2

1/2 cups of vegetable or chicken stock

6 ounces of sliced smoked salmon

1/2 cup capers, drained and rinsed

2 tablespoons of prepared horseradish

2 tablespoons of sliced fresh chives

In a saucepan, over medium-high heat, heat the oil and butter until the butter melts and begins to foam. Add the garlic and quinoa to the pan and toast until the quinoa begins to pop, about two to three minutes. Add the salt and stock and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer, cover the pan, and cook for fifteen minutes, or until the liquid is absorbed. Remove from the heat, pour the mixture evenly onto a cookie sheet, and refrigerate for up to one day.

Once the quinoa has cooled, add the salmon, capers, horseradish, and chives, and toss to combine well. Serve chilled or at room temperature.

Well. 2012 sure has delivered on its promise of enormous change! In the last month, an overwhelming cascade of events has impacted the Anusara yoga community. All of us are still processing these events in our own ways, and it’s probably not a stretch to say that we are surprised to find ourselves in this place.

Yoga Coalition is a group of yoga teachers who have recently distanced themselves from John Friend and Anusara, Inc. Regardless of our transitions from Anusara, Inc., we are as committed as ever to excellence in the art of teaching yoga, and to our local and global communities. As the dust settles from these recent experiences, we find ourselves asking:

What now?

We find the deep camaraderie we developed as co-creators of Anusara yoga is stronger than ever, and we know these bonds help us both to serve others and to evolve ourselves. Change has invigorated our creativity and our self-awareness, so we don’t wish to replicate the old structure, or to create without careful consideration. Instead, we want to initiate a movement toward a new paradigm of collectivity that we can grow organically over time, one based on our education and shared wisdom.

Moving forward, we know we won’t have a perfectly unified vision. This is a good thing–it allows room for more than one voice, and gives us the freedom to grow, independently and together.

We hope to collaborate and build on existing relationships, in a decentralized way that fosters creativity and allows grassroots initiative. Some of us may collaborate on projects and programs to empower our students. Some may focus on building bridges to the larger yoga community. Some of us may work to re-imagine what a serious yogic education, with a true standard of excellence, looks like.

As some of you already know, Anusara yoga has been in a serious crisis the past ten days. Allegations spread via internet about the unethical behaviour of its founder, our teacher, John Friend. Naime has been in Athens teaching all week, experiencing crisis in a different way as the city has been under seige with riots. This past week, I have spent every free moment scrambling to make sense of the ‘mess’. Through an endless stream of conversations with many of my friends and leaders in the Anusara community, and through John’s own admission, we painfully discovered certain accusations to be true. Banding together in hope John would pay attention to our unified voice, we offered our heartfelt pleas and recommendations on how to best support Anusara through these turbulent waters. The level of integrity, commitment and raw honesty that I witnessed this week with my colleagues has left me with profound respect for each of these courageous hearts as well as for the entire Anusara kula. We have been brought to razors edge of our emotions, each one of us being asked to ‘risk it all’ in the name of our highest truth. I realize now that John’s actions have become a catalyst for all of us to dig deeper inside, and along with John, start answering some tough questions. Are we offering ourselves the dignity to be honest and real with ourselves and each other? Are our words truly in alignment with our actions?

After much deliberation and a heavy heart, Naime and I feel it is time to move in a new direction, away from John. We have the utmost respect for the teachings of Anusara yoga and will always honor John Friend for all that he has given us personally and professionally. We remain steadfast and forever true to our commitment to the Principles. Having served the Anusara community for 13 years, we are trained to seek nothing less than excellence and Shri (beauty). Our commitment to these values and the beautiful communities we serve are unwavering. We intend to complete all of our 2012 Anusara trainings with integrity, clarity and dedication, and are confident our students will receive the total support and credits necessary if/when they seek Anusara certification.

As we peek delicately off into the horizon, we are inspired by what we see. We are birthing our second DIG YOGA studio, in Philadelphia, in just a few months with our new partner Mariel Freeman. Many collaborations with our beloved friends are already in the works, including advanced trainings and workshops with our pals/teachers Noah Mazé, Sianna Sherman, Douglas Brooks, Amy Ippoliti, Paul Muller-Ortega, Christina Sell, Desiree Rumbaugh, Martin Kirk, etc. Our vision for DIG is to expand the boundaries of yoga to celebrate the diversity of many voices and humbly serve our yoga communities with integrity, compassion and depth.

Our dedication to living yoga has lead us to everything we have today, and while it surely is not always the easiest path, it has offered us the ability to sit closer to the very light and core of our heart. We lovingly accept John for his humanity, offer him blessings for true healing and thank him deeply for every gift he has given us.